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Monday, May 10, 2010

SOUNDS odd, but a non-IAS officer Dr Prajapati Trivedi who has spent most part of his life in the World Bank working in no less than 25 countries around the world, is now on a mission to bring in efficiency of government administration, and introduce a performance bonus for employees working in various central government ministries and departments. Dr Trivedi, secretary of the performance management division under cabinet secretariat, has reportedly worked out a proposal under which senior administrators like secretary or additional secretary would get a bonus of no less than 20% of their salary provided his ministry meets 100% target and saves money from non-plan expenditure. That means, a secretary to a highly efficient ministry of the Government of India, who gets Rs 80,000 per month as salary may receive Rs 20,000 more, making him an instant lakhpati. The joint secretaries and other employees in Central government would also be major beneficiaries of this new proposal which has the blessings of cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar and understandably of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. But if the performance of a department/ministry is 70% or less, the concerned officials won’t get a penny as bonus.

Significantly, the government has been toying with the idea of introducing a performance-linked payout to efficient government employees for the last 20 years, but has failed to deliver it so far. Even 6th Pay Commission recommended a small portion of the government employees’ salary to be linked to performance, but that has not been implemented so far.

In fact, very few people in corridors of power now remember that Dr Trivedi as the economic adviser to government of India during 1992-94, worked closely with Dr Manmohan Singh, then finance minister, and Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, then finance secretary. A product of St. Stephen’s College in Delhi, Dr Trivedi is an MSc in economics from London School of Economics and a PhD from BostonUniversity.

Introducing bonus linked to performance is the right idea for performance enhancement. We have it in most of the industries. But, it would be more meaningful if performance parameters could be fixed on individual basis instead of a global parameter for the whole department. Also, it would be worthwhile if differential slabs can be introduced wherein there is a cut-off level and also a level for achieving more than 100% target. ashok banik ( e-mail : akbanik53@gmail.com )

Indian administration had never adopted targets as performance criteria. Most often even the CR are written at the whims of senior and it is too far for India to think about any thing like Job Role assessment, Targets and their achievements. Only the coutry known for any thing of targets and achievement is the U.K and others would take sevearal years to reach even the standards of British Administration. The targets are to be implented from our judicial system where millions of application and applicants are waiting for decades to get justice. Speeding up Judiciary would automatically would mean efficiency in Administrtion.

It is possible that babus were benchmarked against global babus and with industry specifc practises also pay in terms of fixed+vairable than they got salary if they perform also this can be linked to promotions. I also wish we could have lateral hire at senior levels

motivation and the moral and ethics toward work is more important along with the performance linked payouts. the salary of the officials should be that much that they can feel proud to tell other because they are often ashamed to tell that they get lesser than an ordinary person in private sector. then bring the strict rule to manage them and ask for the performance.

The appointment of Prajapati Trivedi,merits investigation.He is playing the role of a tout to advise the GOI.The PM is either too naive with zero administrative experience and no controle over his wayward Ministers and bureaucrats particularly the Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar or he is ill-advised by his advisors who have turned into politicians,owing allegiance to the Congress party. They are a committed bureaucracy carrying lots of secrets.A K SAXENA (A retired civil servant)A K SAXENA (

I am sure with time this model can be implemented in government But, It will not improve the situation cutting non planned expenses in an infrastructure less, redtape work environment will not yield higher efficiencywhich is required in the government today.

Performance based salary should only be a case in private sectors.Government departments are very different from pvt companies. Roles and responsibilities of a govt officer are very different and should not be confused with salary that they get. Pvt. sectors job is to maximize the profits AT ANY COST. Under this backdrop anyone outsider like Dr.Prajapati is simply undermining sincere people working in the government. Sri.Saxena has very rightly put his appointment as a naive approach.

Mr.Saxena and Mr.Nishit are surely outdated, and out of their minds when they say incentivising performance in government is a naive approach. Assume and hope majority of babus don't conform to the thoughts of these two. Targets in private sector may be profit and efficiency oriented [quantity and quality] and that is how performance is defined and measured there. In government, performance can surely be defined and measured [as is done in developed nations] in terms of TARGETS on delivery, efficiency, implementation, cost and timeliness of action/decision making and even a kid can understand that all of these parameters are easily quantifiable, measurable and can easily be incentivised. And of course non-achievement against targets of babus on cost, timeliness and efficiency in delivery must be penalised in terms of disciplinary action, demotion and recovery of loss caused to the taxpayer/exchequer.

I fully agree with Dr. Trivedi's idea of enhancing efficiency of Govt.Officials by giving bonus to performers.The strategy when implemented will enhance the morale of the officials who are sincere and result oriented

I fully agree with Dr. Trivedi's idea of enhancing efficiency of Govt.Officials by giving bonus to performers.The strategy when implemented will enhance the morale of the officials who are sincere and result oriented

The World Bank has introduced this in some countries and this system failed totally - Cambodia is one example - this has led to nepotism in organizations like the Asian Development bank and the World Bank as well. these things sound good in theory but in practice, get abused because of the subjectivity element - and it implies that those implementing it will be totally honest and objective. Unfortunately it does not work like that. It leads to sycophancy ans shifts attention away from genuinely good quality work to fudging things to making it appear that you met your targets. Does anyone remember IRDP??????The difference in performance does not warrant such huge differentials in pay outs. Why not simply punish thos ewho do not work?

This Prajapati Trivedi is a political appointee, the nephew of the famous VC and SC Shukla brothers from Madhya Pradesh...He has survived and risen in his entire career mostly due to his political connections in the Indian establishment..

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